The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for May 18-24 2015
NPR’s Pam Fessler reported on the move toward online voter registration and the New York Times examined the role of super PACs and tax-exempt groups in the 2016 presidential election. Elizabeth Drew considered the ways that the very rich donate – and the candidates collect and spend – increasingly large amounts of money on campaigns. Justice Department agents are looking into allegations that the state of California and its courts are denying voting rights to residents with intellectual disabilities. University of Florida professor Michael McDonald has researched the impact of laws disenfranchising ex-felons in Florida at his site United States Election Project. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan vetoed a bill that would allow felons to vote as soon as they leave prison rather than waiting to finish parole or probation. Ireland has voted by a huge majority to legalise same-sex marriage, becoming the first country in the world to do so by popular vote and in Poland, voters go to the polls in a Presidential run-off election.